{"id":251156,"date":"2026-04-15T16:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/251156\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:59:08","slug":"former-astros-prospect-jon-kemmer-dies-in-texas-car-crash-at-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/251156\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Astros prospect Jon Kemmer dies in Texas car crash at 35"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jon Kemmer<\/a>, who spent six of his 10 professional seasons with the Astros’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates from 2013-18, was most recently a coach for HTX Battle Bucks, a 14U travel baseball team based in the Houston area. Klemmer coached the Battle Bucks at the Triple Play Classic in Houston this weekend and was set to return to his home in Santa Fe on Sunday night, according to Mike Kilroy of\u00a0Explore Jefferson<\/a>, a news outlet in Kemmer’s hometown of Clarion, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Kemmer’s vehicle exited the roadway on Farm to Market 2004 road and subsequently struck an electric pole just after 6 p.m. Sunday night, according to the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office. Kemmer’s vehicle then rolled over, and he was pronounced dead on the scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kemmer was a frequent face at\u00a0the Astros’ Spring Training<\/a> last decade before his stints with Houston minor-league affiliates in Troy, New York; Fresno, California; and Corpus Christi, Texas. He shone as a prep star in Clarion County in Pennsylvania\u201490 minutes northeast of Pittsburgh\u2014then was a star outfielder at Clarion College and Brewton-Parker College in Georgia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kemmer was a 21st-round pick by the Astros in 2013, and he closed his professional career as a with stints as a mashing left-handed bat in professional leagues in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Kemmer left a lasting impression on many in his winding baseball life, including Chris Rossetti<\/a> of the YDL Sports Network, who paid tribute to Kemmer on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Through it all, Jon was always good to me,” Rosetti wrote. “Always would give me an interview, always would have time to talk. Always wanted to catch up.<\/p>\n

“In 2013, his rookie year in pro ball he was playing for the Tri-Valley Cats just outside Albany, N.Y. My dad and I went on a minor league baseball trip and Tri-Valley was one of the places we stopped. Jon took the time to meet my dad and to talk to us. He was just that kind of person.”<\/p>\n

Kemmer last played professionally in the Dominican Winter League in 2021. He spent his post-playing career in Santa Fe with his wife, Kourtney, and two children, according to an obituary<\/a>. Kemmer was 35 at the time of Sunday’s accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Requests for comment to Chron from the Astros and HTX Battle Bucks have yet to receive a response\u00a0as of Wednesday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jon Kemmer, who spent six of his 10 professional seasons with the Astros’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[90183,87332,16469,1704,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-251156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-alertable-astros-chr","9":"tag-chronastros","10":"tag-chronsports","11":"tag-chronstaff","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}